An airbag device generally has an airbag for protecting an occupant, and an inflator for expanding the airbag.
However, an airbag device is known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-160600, wherein an airbag is deployed, a child seat is restrained, impact on the child seat is alleviated, and a child occupant is retrained so that when the child seat has been installed in the occupant seat so as to be facing backward, the safety of the child will be heightened in the event of a collision. The airbag device will be described below with reference to FIG. 13 hereof.
An airbag device 200 shown in FIG. 13 is provided to a passenger seat 206. The airbag device 200 has an airbag 201; an inflator 202 for expanding the airbag 201; a case 203 for accommodating the airbag 201 and the inflator 202; a lid 204, which is provided to the case 203, and which is broken when the airbag 201 deploys; and a pocket part 205, which is formed in the airbag 201, and which accommodates a backrest part 208 of a child seat 207 when the child seat 207 is installed in a passenger seat 206.
However, according to the airbag device 200, the child seat 207 is not a component that is unique to the vehicle; therefore, a variety of child seats 207 may be attached to the occupant seat 206. For example, when the child seat 207 has a high backrest part 208, the airbag 201 may not be able to pass over the upper end of the backrest part 208. At this time, the backrest part 208 of the child seat 207 will be pushed backwards by the airbag 201, which is an undesirable arrangement.